”When you make movies the way I do, you invest everything you have” says the renowned Yugoslav filmmaker Emir Kusturica. ”And you do it like a crazy maniac.” If you were one of the lucky few who saw his last film, the Golden Palm winning Underground, you'd know what he means: 50 years of Yugoslavia's history packed into 3 hours of bursting song, dance, drink and bloodshed. Kusturica's talent for exhilarating tales have made this Bosnian-born auteur one of the most awarded filmmakers in the world. (He is one of only three directors ever to win Cannes' top prize twice.) Kusturica's latest film is his most crazy, colorful and non-political film to date, Black Cat, White Cat, a screwball story about gypsy rival families, tuba-filled music, double weddings, and life and death.
After repeated distribution delays from USA Films (most likely because of the renewed problems in the Balkans), Black Cat, White Cat finally begins its theatrical play this Friday. Kusturica sat down with indieWIRE for an in-depth interview during his visit to the New York Film Festival last year, to discuss his total and crazy devotion to cinema, his elaborate tracking shots, the importance of location and Kitsch.
The last few movies you've done have been very big projects. Black Cat, White Cat seems like a huge production.
EK :
Only 4 and a half million dollars. I had bigger budgets on Arizona Dream and Underground. This one looks richer. The main trick was finding a beautiful place with all this magnetism, and shooting during the day between 11 and 3 in the afternoon when the sun is out. That's probably the trick we found. And then everything you put in the frame looks much richer and bigger than it really is, which is the nature of the movie.
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EK :
It's incredible, because if you want to do it like this, even if it doesn't look complicated, you have to engage the Gypsies with all possible means. From time to time, you have to do it like the way Madelaine Albright is doing all around the world. One day, I threaten the Gypsies, the other day, I was their best friend. To be a director of these things, it's not just necessary to be talented, it's more necessary to be endurable, and to make them – even if they are not ready – to make them do something you want them to do. That is also the pattern of auteur cinema that does not exist anymore. In my case, because it's a territory that's out of sight of the studios, I can still finance and find the money to make these types of films which have an elegance of expression in what happens in front of the lens, and at the same time have a taste of underground films.
Black Cat, White Cat in particular, keeps a momentum throughout the movie… how did you achieve this ?
EK : Basically, it's predetermined by the space. If the space is filled with signals, than you can do it. That's why I want to be surrounded in each movie with the elements that I like to work with. Then I could rely on taking any of them. And make the base of the movie, vivid and strong. If I were offered to make a movie in a castle in the middle of France, I wouldn't know how to do it. We all like to go to a place where we can feel and make it the best way. Every movie that I do, if you analyze the stories, you can notice that in each story, that within the movie after the first 15 minutes, it could fall apart. Or every ten minutes it has the chance that you lose the thread. On the other hand, if you succeed in putting them together. Then the movie looks spontaneous and more like cinema.
Did the Gypsies have a script to go by ?
EK : We had a script, but the problem is these people don't read. So the question is to give them a walkman and learn the dialogue by audio. The advantage of the gypsy language, even though I don't understand it that much, the language is perfect melody. So if you propose the movie the way I do, then the language is just one part of the melody. Orchestrating all inside, and the language is following the meaning of what they say, and it's never the same as written. Language for them is not just regular communication where you exchange necessary information, it's singing, in a certain way.
And their music ?
EK : The music is so incredible. It operates with a very unique rhythm, but at the same time, its melodies are very eclectic. Sometimes, you can detect Rock and Roll band riffs inside. And the music they play, is the music they play every day. Everyday for 20 years, they live by the weddings and the celebrations, so rarely they have one or two days during the week free. And moving from place to place, listening, integrating different pieces from others songs freely - they don't have a feeling of stealing.
Interview by Anthony Kaufman
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